Living in darkness: Poverty and pollution in oil-rich Congo

Living in darkness: Poverty and pollution in oil-rich Congo

Oil wealth: Pointe-Noire is the hub of the Republic of Congo's energy industry
Oil wealth: Pointe-Noire is the hub of the Republic of Congo's energy industry. Photo: SAMIR TOUNSI / AFP/File
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!

Behind their homes is an oil pipeline and above them are high-voltage cables suspended between pylons. A little further off is a flare tower, burning off excess gas 24 hours a day.

Yet these potent symbols of Congo's oil and gas bonanza mean little to the villagers who live in their shadow.

When darkness falls, they have to fire up a generator or light lamps. None of their homes has mains electricity.

"I'm 68 years old and I live in darkness," said Florent Makosso, seated beneath a giant banana tree.

"My parents and grandparents had a better quality of life when it (Congo) was French Equatorial Africa."

Makosso lives in Tchicanou, a small village 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Pointe-Noire -- the energy hub of the Republic of Congo, also called Congo-Brazzaville.

Read also

Idled plants fuel German angst about de-industrialisation

PAY ATTENTION: Follow Briefly News on Twitter and never miss the hottest topics! Find us at @brieflyza!

The former French colony gained independence in 1958 and became a major oil producer some two decades later.

It notched up sales last year averaging 344,000 barrels a day, making it the third biggest exporter south of the Sahara after Angola and Nigeria.

The country is sitting on 100 billion cubic metres (3,500 billion cubic feet) of natural gas -- more than the entire annual consumption of Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy.

Marginalised

But little of this wealth has translated into prosperity for the country's 5.5 million people -- around half live in extreme poverty, according to World Bank figures.

Tchicanou is emblematic of a community that suffers the downsides of fossil fuels but gets few of its benefits.

Surrounded by fruit trees, the village of 700 souls straddles Highway 1, the lifeline between the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noire and the capital Brazzaville.

Read also

Trapped on the frontline in battle for Ukraine town

Tchicanou and the neighbouring village Bondi host pipelines and pylons for carrying oil products and electricity.

But they find themselves in the same situation as communities in the remotest parts of the country -- they are still not hooked up to the national grid.

The village has no streetlights, and the biggest source of illumination comes from the flare tower at a nearby 487-megawatt gas-fired power plant, the country's largest.

"It's an ordeal living here," said Makosso.

"We have to buy generators, which are expensive, and running them is a challenge in itself."

Without power, "television and the other electrical appliances are just decoration," he said, pointing to the simple challenge of keeping food refrigerated.

A fellow resident, Flodem Tchicaya, said Tchicanou "is in a good location. But the only use of the gas that they burn here is to cause pollution and make us sick."

Inequality

Roger Dimina, 57, said that access to electricity in Congo was "unfair."

Read also

Winter power shortages won't worry off-grid Swiss valley

"Instead of it starting at the bottom and heading to the top, it starts at the top and the bottom has nothing," he said.

The Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville
The Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville. Photo: Aude GENET / AFP
Source: AFP

Across Congo, electrification in urban areas reaches less than 40 percent of homes, while in rural zones, it is less than one home in 10.

In a recent interview in the Depeches de Brazzaville, the capital's sole daily newspaper, Energy Minister Emile Ouosso said the goal was to reach 50 percent by 2030.

A group close to the Catholic church, the Justice and Peace Commission, has been running an "electricity for all" campaign, focussing especially on villages in the orbit of Pointe-Noire.

The group's deputy coordinator, Brice Makosso, said the government has declared a budget surplus of 700 billion CFA francs (more than a billion dollars) for 2022.

Just a small amount of this could hook villages up to the grid, he said, pointing to duties that oil companies in the area paid to the government.

PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.